Attachment in Therapeutic Practice

Arietta Slade, Ph.D., is Clinical Professor at the Yale Child Study Center, and Professor Emerita, Clinical Psychology, The City University of New York.  A theoretician, clinician, teacher, and researcher, she has written about the development of parental reflective functioning, the implications of attachment for child and adult psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and for infant mental health practice. She is one of the founders and co-directors of Minding the Baby®, an interdisciplinary reflective home visiting program for high-risk mothers, infants, and their families, at the Yale Child Study Center and School of Nursing.  Dr. Slade is editor, with Jeremy Holmes, of the six volume set, Major Work on Attachment (SAGE Publications, 2013), with Elliot Jurist and Sharone Bergner, of Mind to Mind: Infant Research, Neuroscience, and Psychoanalysis (Other Press, 2008), and with Dennie Wolf, of Children at Play (Oxford University Press, 1994).  She has also been in private practice for over thirty-five years, working with individuals of all ages.

Two extraordinary clinicians with decades of research and writing on attachment worked with immense application and skill to distill what is essential in attachment theory and brought it to psychotherapeutic practice. The result is an exceptionally comprehensive and profound work of lasting value for every clinician – regardless of orientation. The book is a guide to improving the practice of the most experienced therapists at the same time as offering the friendliest and most accessible of introduction to this complex field. It is a remarkable achievement from two of the most sophisticated and respected authors on the clinical application of attachment theory. It provides a vivid picture of the process of bonding and lifelong transformation which attachment theory inspired therapy can bring. The book is for everyone who is serious about working psychotherapeutically and will not be bettered as an introduction for many many years to come

• Background: Attachment ScienceIntroductionAttachment’s Principals and PrinciplesAttachment-informed Psychotherapy: Definition and OverviewAffect Regulation in Attachment and PsychotherapySensitivity, Mirroring, and Play: Foundations of Attachment Security in Caregivers and TherapistsThe Neuroscience of Parental SensitivityMentalising‘Earned Security’: Attachment and Resilience‘Organised Insecurity’: Fostering Security through Therapeutic Conversations‘Disorganised Insecurity’: Attachment Approaches to Complex DisordersFrom Stasis to Movement: An Attachment Model of Psychotherapeutic ChangeThe Improbable Profession: An Attachment-Bayesian Model of Psychodynamic ChangeAttachment, Mentalising, and Child Psychotherapy: Working with ParentsAttachment in Couples and FamiliesAttachment and SocietyEpilogueSelected Attachment BibliographyReferences